| This Huntington voter takes her turn with the new electronic voting machine. |
Emery County participated in the mid-term elections on Nov. 7 with the following results. In Commissioner A Gary Kofford, incumbent, received 2,005 votes to defeat challenger Mike Hurdsman who received 1,747 votes. In the Commissioner B race Jeff Horrocks received 1,995 votes and defeated Kent Wilson who received 1,805 votes. In the sheriff’s race incumbent LaMar Guymon received 1,995 votes to defeat challenger Gordon Bennett who received 1,854 votes. In the county clerk/auditor race Brenda Dugmore defeated challenger Kollette Cologie by 2,231 votes to 1,563.
The swimming pool referendum passed with 2,733 for votes and 986 votes against. The county also voted to retain Judges Steve Stream, Betty Burns, Ronald E. Nehring and Jill N. Parrish. Dixie Allen received 3,319 votes for state school board of education district #14. Those running unopposed who retained their seats are: Kris Bell-county assessor, Steve Barton-treasurer, Dixie Swasey-county recorder, David Blackwell-county attorney. In the state races Orrin Hatch received 2,758 votes and Pete Ashdown received 780 votes from Emery County. In the third congressional district Jim Matheson received 2,385 votes to Lavar Christensen’s 1,333 votes. For State House of Representatives seat #69 Brad King received 259 votes from Green River. In State House of Representatives seat #70, Kay McIff received 2,682 votes from Emery County. On the constitutional amendment #1 for votes were 2,109 and against 1,452.
After the polls closed at 8 p.m. the machines with their memory cards intact were picked up by county employees who transported the machines back to the county building. Jeff Guymon, information technology director for the county, helped remove the cards along with Brenda Dugmore, clerk/auditor. The cards were then put in the master machine where they were tablulated and totals were printed out. The Green River machines took the longest to transport back to Castle Dale. After they arrived the final tabulations were made by approximately 10:15 p.m.
Louie Valles from Texas who recently moved to Utah was the Diebold representative for Emery County. Emery County experienced one paper jam where the roll of paper had been improperly installed by an election worker. The machine still recorded the votes and the paper roll was reinstalled. The election results will be canvassed on Nov. 21 at the commission meeting. Between now and then any remaining absentee ballots will be counted which have a postmark Nov. 6 and earlier.